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Originally Posted by tdracer
I forget the name of the guy who ran Red Arrow - but I emailed with him quite a bit after he took over the Sheri's line. He seemed to be working hard to improve the kits - new molds and better quality cast resin parts, upgraded parts (e.g. he replaced the vertical struts for the Little Joe II escape tower with carbon fiber rod instead of the original plastic), that sort of thing. But then Red Arrow went under as well, and I understand he also stiffed many people who paid for stuff they never received.
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Yeah I did a thread here about my visit to Red Arrow-- which was RIGHT after he got the SHR stuff from her after buying the line from her.
I drove up to Michigan to look at some farm equipment I was interested in and to get some sweet black cherries since they were in season at the time, and I knew RAH wasn't TOO far off the beaten path from where I was, so I decided to drop in and do a bit of "rocket shopping".
It took me a bit to find the place... honestly it looked like an old furniture or appliance store, or small supermarket that had gone out of business YEARS before, that he had rented and turned into a Red Arrow Hobbies... I remember the parking lot was bleached white, all the painted lines for parking were pretty much gone, grass was growing in the cracks of the parking lot, and the trees and bushes were all overgrown. The entryway was basically a glassed-in box on the front of the store, which I guess used to be common thing to store shopping carts and minimize snow blowing in or getting tracked in by people coming into the store... The glass door was propped open, as was the front door inside this entryway. At the end of the entryway was an office stacked nearly floor to ceiling with boxes, just enough room to get in there and work, and another huge stack of boxes were outside the door to this office, some labeled some not, so I assume that was the "shipping office" where the labels would be printed and postage paid for shipping the boxes out and arranging for pickup by UPS or FEDEX or whomever... There was a poorly dressed woman sitting in the office with some kids playing around her, fiddling with a computer, probably entering stuff to be shipped and printing labels I'd suppose... I turned and entered the store itself, and was immediately struck by HOW DARK it was inside... there were maybe two lights turned on in the entire store... most of the light was filtering in from the front entryway and the side door which was also propped open to allow a tiny bit of breeze to pass through the store, since there was NO AIR CONDITIONING either... He had TONS of kits, floor to ceiling, and several aisles of racks and stuff with various kits, tubes, supplies, parts, tools, motors, etc. from various manufacturers... One of the aisles was dedicated to home microbrewing, with various grains, malted barley, hops, and various other supplies, tools, and equipment needed to brew your own beer... More kits lined the side and rear wall of the store... The south wall had the propped open door in the corner, which was the best lit part of the store, and just enough room to walk past the end of a long glass case "counter" which was filled with various motors, reloads, cases, electronics, and the other "expensive fiddly bits" that RAH sold... most were of course in the original boxes as they'd been received from the respective manufacturers... About halfway down this glass case the boxes started, double rows of boxes standing open, with various amounts of stuff in them, and a printed order sheet on top, with the stuff in the boxes "checked off" the order list as they were filled. Dave (IIRC that was his name) would wander around the shop with one of these lists, picking stuff up off the shelves or out of the display case at the front, and drop them into the boxes and check it off... when he finished with one he'd double check everything and then stuff the sheet inside and fold the top down, and move it to a stack near the front to await labeling and prep for shipping. Another row of boxes behind him stood open, with their sheets sitting in the top of them-- he had an OLD computer at the end of the case in the corner that he'd pull up his orders and print them out and grab an empty box and start new orders... He told me that basically he only shipped ONE box per order, so if someone ordered something he was out of and had reordered but they hadn't arrived yet, he moved the box to the "back row" to await the arrival of the shipment of stuff he had ordered... THEN he would ship it out. Couldn't afford to ship what he had "in stock" and then ship "whatever was left" when it came in... SO that's why some people's orders were delayed a LONG TIME, sometimes weeks or even months, waiting for something that was backordered with the manufacturer to be made and delivered to him, so he could complete the order and ship the whole thing out at one time. I know he took a LOT of flack for that, because people thought it was just "poor customer service" but he had it figured out how to keep the prices down and sell stuff, and not get skinned on shipping... BUT the tradeoff was, "delayed service" if something you ordered was out of stock and awaiting arrival, and maybe "delayed for months" if it was on backorder... I know I read a post one time where a guy was complaining he'd ordered some motors and cases and kits and stuff from Red Arrow, including some motors he planned to use at an upcoming contest, and didn't receive his order for a couple months because one of the reload cases he'd ordered was on backorder, and so his "box" sat in the back row until the cases arrived from the manufacturer and he could drop one in the box, check it off, and set the box up front to be taped shut and labeled for shipping... It's not like it was any particular SECRET he did things that way; if someone NEEDED something "right away" they could always make a ONE ITEM ORDER and be *guaranteed* he'd ship it as soon as he boxed it up, ASSUMING he had it in stock when they ordered... but for multiple-item orders (especially ones with numerous items to get "reduced price" shipping or whatever) it didn't ship til EVERY ITEM was in the box!
Anyway, it was about 95 degrees that particular day, and the humidity from the forest and nearby lake was making it pretty miserable inside, so I bought a few things and split. We did have a nice little chat, and he showed me the Sheri's Hot Rockets stuff and told me the entire story on that, including the old parts vs. the new masters he was having done, as well as the 'nozzle problem' he was encountering.
Sorry that he went under-- seemed like he was "trying" but I also got the distinct impression he "marched to a different drummer" and that showed in how he did business and his lifestyle, which seemed to be pretty modest and frugal shall we say... which is okay... From what I heard his life situation got pretty difficult and things just sorta fell apart, and of course his business did as well.
Later! OL J R
